I didn't get much clue about the sound of the record from it either. There are 14 tracks but she only briefly describes four of them, and two of those are the big singles that people already know. A lot of the review just seems to be praising Janelle Monae for existing at all.
― jon123, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 10:07 (six years ago) link
https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/when-a-negative-pitchfork-review-could-end-a-career.html
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 12:27 (six years ago) link
Interesting piece.
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 12:44 (six years ago) link
tbh maybe a really bad review and poor sales would be a good time to reboot your project with a better name than black kids ffs
― mh, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:43 (six years ago) link
Very good article, that.
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:08 (six years ago) link
i wish people wouldn't use the word 'infamous' in cases where nobody was murdered
anyway, here's wonderwall http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-artists-ranked-from-best-to-worst.html
― maura, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:21 (six years ago) link
between this dork and frank guan, we could really use a vulture is dumb thread around here
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:23 (six years ago) link
"The idea, the legend, of the Velvets is probably better than their actual output. They were pretentious and quite often unlistenable."
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:27 (six years ago) link
jeez that HoF list is bad
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:27 (six years ago) link
so mean to Queen. what did Queen ever do to him? best band.
All the rap blurbs besides Run DMC and Furious Five have a very intense focus on their problematic elements
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:27 (six years ago) link
I read about 10% of the Vulture article and was too annoyed to read any more. His take on ABBA is probably the wrongest part of the 10% I read.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:30 (six years ago) link
Like imagine being this much of herb to reduce N.W.A to this
I know Ice Cube is a formidable performer; he’s also the author of the dulcet couplet, “You let a Jew / Break up our crew” and an adherent of other anti-Semitic nonsense I don’t recall him ever disassociating himself from, much less apologizing for. I know that Dre is one of music’s most important producers; he’s also a guy who beats up women. And I know “Fuck Tha Police” is a great song; but I also know that its genesis came when Dre and Eazy-E were driving around Compton with a paint gun, shooting at people at bus stops — that is to say, ruining the clothes of working folks going to a crap-paying job to feed their lame kids. N.W.A is more than a footnote in rock history, but there’s not much to the group beyond their first album.
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:31 (six years ago) link
*scans list*
Bill Wyman? more like Bill -- why, man??
― mh, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:32 (six years ago) link
IT'S THE WOOOOORLD'S BIGGEST DICK
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:32 (six years ago) link
a dulcet couplet!
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:35 (six years ago) link
Nice how he points out all the bad things the members of NWA have done but puts Chuck Berry at #1 with no mention of any of the stuff he did.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:36 (six years ago) link
nostalgia is a vaseline-covered motherfucker
― maura, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:37 (six years ago) link
kind of an epic troll though. maybe he should get props for that. every rock fan on earth can find something to get pissed about reading that. wait, thumbs up!
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:38 (six years ago) link
oh my fucking god
Her controversies, from “Papa Don’t Preach” onward, have always been more than a bit épater le bourgeois, her proclamations of control manifestations of insecurity. Look closely and you see that she’s never written a hit on her own; and as her career has gone on she seems more and more ridiculous. But that’s not the critical consensus, which says she was a game changer, a master at pop marketing, a postmodern superstar. Whatever.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:41 (six years ago) link
This sentence will haunt my dreams tonight
Note that, besides the undeniable Bowie and cuddly Elton John, the hall has been very wary of the effete and glam side of rock — no Todd Rundgren, no Dolls, no Mott, no Roxy Music, no Pet Shop, no Marc Bolan, and stretching all the way to the Smiths and Joy Division — while just about every hirsute assemblage of spandexed wankers from that era and every one since have been ushered right in.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:42 (six years ago) link
like, he isn't just wrong (um, yes, she wrote "Lucky Star" on her own, for one), but he he has to play psychotherapist too
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:42 (six years ago) link
Most bullshit part of that NWA thing is that Niggaz4life is probably a better album than Straight Outta Compton. And wasn't NWA & The Posse the first official release?
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:42 (six years ago) link
it becomes painfully obvious halfway through that he's writing longer blurbs when he thinks he's got something clever to say, and they end up being less insightful than the "I don't know much about this person but they're rightfully ranked highly in my list" blurbs
― mh, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:44 (six years ago) link
why is the entry for Solomon Burke entirely about Roxy Music?
180. Solomon Burke (2001)A happy warrior and another openhearted soul singer. But there are literally dozens of more important artists who are not yet in the hall.Let’s look at Roxy Music for comparison’s sake. These guys were taking rock into unseen and weird places on their first album, a maelstrom of emotional melodrama and louche sexuality set to blaring art rock and boasting the mischievous contributions of synthesizer innovator Brian Eno. Mixing rock signifiers like teenage-idol hairstyles and ambiguous sexuality, they evolved into more formalized paeans to decadence, ennui, and passing regret, particularly on their early-period masterpiece Siren. Then the band pivoted, and with Bryan Ferry’s pulsing emotions front and center, created two of the deepest and sincere pop-rock releases of all time, Flesh + Blood and Avalon. Roxy is one of the most important and original bands of the 1970s. Again you get the feeling that since the band was confronting and questioning the rock-star postures and practices of the time, the guys in the nominating room get a bit uncomfortable.
A happy warrior and another openhearted soul singer. But there are literally dozens of more important artists who are not yet in the hall.
Let’s look at Roxy Music for comparison’s sake. These guys were taking rock into unseen and weird places on their first album, a maelstrom of emotional melodrama and louche sexuality set to blaring art rock and boasting the mischievous contributions of synthesizer innovator Brian Eno. Mixing rock signifiers like teenage-idol hairstyles and ambiguous sexuality, they evolved into more formalized paeans to decadence, ennui, and passing regret, particularly on their early-period masterpiece Siren. Then the band pivoted, and with Bryan Ferry’s pulsing emotions front and center, created two of the deepest and sincere pop-rock releases of all time, Flesh + Blood and Avalon. Roxy is one of the most important and original bands of the 1970s. Again you get the feeling that since the band was confronting and questioning the rock-star postures and practices of the time, the guys in the nominating room get a bit uncomfortable.
― soref, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:47 (six years ago) link
gotta fill'em in somewhere
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:50 (six years ago) link
Rush are unique among galumphy prog-rock bands in that they lack a single song (you know, like “Roundabout,” “Court of the Crimson King,” “Freebird,” “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”) you could play for someone to try to convince them of the band’s import.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:51 (six years ago) link
i totally like roxy music more than solomon burke. that guy otm.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:52 (six years ago) link
Imagine being so much of a piss-smelling D&D fatty that you think any of those songs are better than "Tom Sawyer"
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:53 (six years ago) link
i would just play them "xanadu". instant fan!
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:54 (six years ago) link
What songs did Rush even do? It's unknowable...
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:55 (six years ago) link
― scott seward,
yeah I think that blurb was otm actually
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:55 (six years ago) link
i totally like roxy music more than solomon burke
I do too tbh, just boggling at the fact that he doesn't even try to make any connection between the two, just briefly notes Burke's existence and then writes a paragraph explaining why he digs Roxy Music
― soref, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:56 (six years ago) link
This sentence about Patti Smith, citation needed
She also reinjected Van Morrisonian levels of exaltation and ecstasy to the music, which then lived on in the work of R.E.M. among others.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:58 (six years ago) link
that solomon burke blurb is hilarious
― nxd, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:11 (six years ago) link
they shudda done that for every entry, a one sentence mini-biography followed by a paragraph on roxy music
― nxd, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:13 (six years ago) link
i'll be honest, i'm kinda mad that i didn't think to do something like this. it's so pointless in the exact way that i enjoy being pointless.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:13 (six years ago) link
i'd read scott's version any day
especially if it's mostly asides
― mh, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:21 (six years ago) link
― soref, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 7:56 AM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
it's easy to understand, it's because he doesn't know anything about Solomon Burke! though "happy warrior" and "openhearted soul singer" are very solid shortcuts to describe artists of a certain specific genre you're ignorant about, i guess...
― omar little, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:22 (six years ago) link
"A graceful, elegant presence over decades" is a great way to describe Ray Charles if you don't know him from much more than his appearance on Super Dave
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:26 (six years ago) link
idk Solomon Burke = Hubert Humphrey is a weird comparison imo
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:29 (six years ago) link
certainly the women he worked with thought Ray was a graceful, elegant presence at all times
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:30 (six years ago) link
Its really sad for the editors of Vulture to take advantage of and not properly edit a *googles* 57 year old man like this
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:30 (six years ago) link
still grimacing about what he said about Depeche Mode tbh
― mh, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:36 (six years ago) link
“Mama Said Knock You Out” is almost his One Great Song. But I don’t believe a word he says in any other track he’s ever recorded. I was surprised to read that he had actually made the short list several times. The guy on the Grammys wearing the funny hat and nattering on about “Grammy moment” this and “Grammy moment” that — that complete industry tool in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:37 (six years ago) link
*grimaces harder*
― mh, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:38 (six years ago) link
A sui generis blues boogie stomper, often slowed down to barbiturate levels. I like Hooker, but why is his oddball shtick lauded while those of so many others ignored?
― omar little, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:44 (six years ago) link
scott will never top his ayreon review tbf
that said, they've got a new one out! get on it
― imago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:53 (six years ago) link
it was all downhill after that.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:54 (six years ago) link
even the ayreon guy liked it. he e-mailed me.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 15:55 (six years ago) link